Ways to Connect

This Saturday marks the Lunar New Year, formerly known as the Chinese New Year. For commentator Grace Lin, it’s a holiday that comes with baggage.

As a child, I resented Chinese New Year. My Taiwanese parents celebrated with great enthusiasm. Other holidays, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, were treated as obligatory duties as well as with much puzzlement.

The day before President Trump was inaugurated, commentator and art historian Paul Staiti was passing though an airport in Los Angeles when he noticed Barack Obama’s photograph greeting every arriving passenger. Staiti found himself contemplating the image, and its imminent disappearance.

For many parents, weekends mean spending time watching their children play sports. Commentator John Galvin faithfully attends his kids’ games. And he loves watching the kids play. But watching – and listening – to certain people on the sidelines is another story altogether.

If there’s one thing that makes me lament this coming weekend, it will be having to listen to loud-mouthed, micro-managing sports parents. Dads and moms.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on the promise, among others, to get rid of President Obama’s program that offered a temporary reprieve to so-called dreamers — immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally when they were children. But in a recent interview with Time magazine, Trump said he wants to “work something out” to help dreamers.